1. Much like his Fresh Prince character, Will is actually from West Philadelphia.
2. The show title actually comes from his music alter-ego The Fresh Prince.
3. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince won the first ever Grammy award in the Rap category, which was for their song ‘Summertime.’
4. Though he has never won, Smith has been nominated for two Best Actor Oscars, one for Ali (2001) and the other The Pursuit of Happiness (2006). That was until 2022, when he was nominated for Best Actor and Best Picture for King Richard, finally taking out the former. However will not be allowed to attend the Academy Awards for the next 10 years, as a result of his slapping comedian Chris Rock on stage during the 2022 Oscar ceremony.
5. He’s really good at solving rubik’s cubes. He solved one once on LIVE television in 55 seconds.
6. He chose the lead role in Wild Wild West over playing Neo in The Matrix. Not one of his finest moments, although at least he is still inmortalised on the wall at Warner Bros. Movie World as part of the Wild Wild West ride. That counts for something right?
7. Barack Obama has said that he and Smith have discussed the potential for the actor to play Obama if a film was ever made on the president’s life.
8. His real first name is Carroll.
9. Smith once owed the IRS $2.8 million for underpaid income taxes.
10. He was a multi-millionaire by the age of 20.
11. When filming began for The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, he was almost bankrupt again.
12. He can speak fluent Spanish.
13. According to a report published by Forbes in 2007, for each dollar Smith got paid, his movies averaged $10 of gross income. Pretty impressive.
14. He shares a birthday with Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill.